Diesel in snow problems- Update 1/27/22 Page 12.

[Tug556]

Looks like the filter has been removed.

Yes, this picture was after I removed the air filter. No snow made it to the engine side of the filter.

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[Compression-Ignition]

Edit: Good try, but O.P. says nope.

I put most of the blame on a snow blocked grille.

Do you think it was coming in through the tube in the grill?

I've been pondering this situation and I've got a convoluted, but IMO plausible scenario as to why O.P. had this happen and it ties in to the above post.
Note: the air box has a drain that flows out the front.

1st thing that has to happen in my theory is that it needs to be the perfect kind of snow. Some of those big giant wet packable snow flakes.

2nd thing that might have something to do with it is O.P.'s particular vehicle might run a little cooler. <<<This one is easily debatable

3rd the perfect snow from above builds up all over the grille. After the grille is completely full the fan ends up pulling air....snow in from everywhere (not mainly the grille which is the normal path)

4th the snow is clumping up all over. Finally the snow clumps up enough to block the pathway to the airbox opening on the driver side. I don't think it necessarily filled the airbox from here, just blocked the path to it.

5th once the normal path to the airbox was blocked the engine/turbo started sucking from the airbox drain which has a short and sweet little trip from the grille to the airbox where it packed it up lickety-split.

Queue the dash lights and let the fuckery be bared to all.



I live in a snow zone, but I rarely see the big fat flakes. It's almost always that fine little sugar snow that you can't pack. And for the folks here that think O.P. has some sort of an inner fender issue, I don't even have any inner fenders on our Jeep....I'll build some eventually, but haven't had them on for 2 winters now.

 

[Dyolfknip74]

Looks like the filter has been removed.

Lol, read the caption you quoted.

 

[Tug556]

The front grill was not covered with snow at all. The snow was closer to the super fine type of snow.

 

[Compression-Ignition]

LOL, then I got nothin'....

Edit:
Well maybe the 'your 3.0L runs cooler than others' thing has some merit?

 

[beaups]

The front grill was not covered with snow at all. The snow was closer to the super fine type of snow.

Based on some other diesel owners in this thread it sounds like a design issue. Perhaps poor fender liner design combined with the nature of diesel engines always sucking "max air" regardless of throttle pedal position?

 

[Wheelin Matt]

Me again, the former diesel owner who thinks the fender liner drivers side may have something to do with it.
Just for reference, this picture I just took 2 minutes ago of my Jeep in my driveway. I live in Colorado mountains at 8500 feet and we’ve been getting dumped on since Christmas Eve. I’ve driven my Jeep all over the place the last few days and popped my hood yesterday to check since reading this thread. Not even the slightest hint of any snow under the hood.
I can almost guarantee the inner fender liner along with a possible misaligned air box or missing hood seal is causing snow to be kicked up into your engine bay and work it’s way into the air box. The air box is just above the exposed area due to the inner liner being cut around the windshield washer reservoir. Jeep did a horrendous job of addressing the inner liner on the diesel, they just hacked it up instead.
Best of luck and hope you get this fixed!

 

[Compression-Ignition]

Next time we drive the wife's JLURD in a snowstorm I'll make sure to document what happens in the engine bay, with no fender liners.

@Tug556
What was the ambient temperature roughly?

 

[Tug556]

Next time we drive the wife's JLURD in a snowstorm I'll make sure to document what happens in the engine bay, with no fender liners.

@Tug556
What was the ambient temperature roughly?

It was in the low to mid 20s.

 

[2mnycars]

Yep, Temps were all normal.


I got the dealership I bought the Jeep from to take the jeep tomorrow and give me a rental. Only catch is I have pay to tow the vehicle as roadside assistant through chrysler only covers the closest dealer, and the place I bought it from is not the closest dealer.

If you go to the Gladiator forum you can see a long thread showing photos of Jeeps in snow.

I don't think your Jeep is right. Assembly? Missing parts? Damage in shipping? A body shop might see something instantly.

fwiw I had a VW Jetta turbo diesel. It had a snow mesh in the air intake. Dealer took it out....that worried me. That was when they removed/replaced the Mass Airflow Sensor for the second time.

edit: Mass Airflow Sensor--is it cheap enough to buy one and put it in to see if the problem goes away?

Finally--3 inches of snowfall is nothing. Here we don't call it snow until it reaches over our knees...
(ski instructor for 35 years...)

 

[DHW]

How the hell did the engine heat not melt the snow? My 2.0 gets so hot under there it would turn the snow to water, then to steam, then to plasma.

 

[Hogdreamer]

The only time I saw that much snow under the hood of a vehicle was when I hit the ditch with a '65 Chrysler Newport at 70 mph heading home after school was released because of the storm. Was able to drive out of the ditch when I came upon a farmers road going into a field. When I opened the hood it was packed with snow but engine compartments were pretty open back then.
I wanted to take my jeep out during that storm we had a couple Friday's ago but I had a procedure done that day and the doctor said no driving for 24 hours.
Bummed, bummed, bummed I was but hopefully we'll get more big snowstorms yet before winter is over.
Your situation seems very strange for only being on the road. Good luck getting it figured out.

 

[tjklein]

It wasn't that quite that bad down in MN, but thank you very much for posting.

I was in Fargo and 45 miles east of Fargo. I am very familiar with how bad it was. I plowed out 10" of snow from my driveway at the lake.

 

[Capricorn]

Me again, the former diesel owner who thinks the fender liner drivers side may have something to do with it.
Just for reference, this picture I just took 2 minutes ago of my Jeep in my driveway. I live in Colorado mountains at 8500 feet and we’ve been getting dumped on since Christmas Eve. I’ve driven my Jeep all over the place the last few days and popped my hood yesterday to check since reading this thread. Not even the slightest hint of any snow under the hood.
I can almost guarantee the inner fender liner along with a possible misaligned air box or missing hood seal is causing snow to be kicked up into your engine bay and work it’s way into the air box. The air box is just above the exposed area due to the inner liner being cut around the windshield washer reservoir. Jeep did a horrendous job of addressing the inner liner on the diesel, they just hacked it up instead.
Best of luck and hope you get this fixed!

Off topic - but what a scenic place!

 

[Maverick909]

Next time we drive the wife's JLURD in a snowstorm I'll make sure to document what happens in the engine bay, with no fender liners.

@Tug556
What was the ambient temperature roughly?

There is a bit of a difference between a miss aligned or chopped liner vs one that’s been removed. One that’s been removed has less chance for build up as clumps o snow can fall off where as a 1-2” gap or hole would continuously build up with less places to fall from the weight. Just my .02

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